Marsh Hawk Review is an online poetry journal sponsored by the Marsh Hawk Press collective. Marsh Hawk Review will appear twice a year, under the revolving editorship of collective members. Each issue will offer a selection of poems solicited by the editor, in addition to new work posted by poets in the collective.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Basil King

Basil King

Learning to Draw/A HistoryWILD CARDSPart one: American HandsPrologue

There is no endingNot everything can go intoOne painting one poemDivide Divide and Divide againFind the spaceEqual to the informationEach time the handFinds three of kindEach time I fill a full houseI am called to an album of family photosWild CardsThe towering AceBlack JackDon’t call the accountantsIt’s too earlyNew structures are being builtPeople are movingThey are raising havocEach word carries its own weightEach stroke of paint accumulates a massIt’s the impossible that’s with usDissolve deceptionThe Possible Can HappenGive me the eggYou keep the chickenI have stroked the canvasAnd turned its neckSo that it would faceThe only color that remainsThe sound the one that uttersBring me the seasonsA throat that is willingTo stroke the fisherman homeOarsman she wears her mother’s dressShe brings her babyThe ocean is deepAlone on the beachThe fish biteNaples TrafalgarIn Venice there are canalsAncient whorehousesTorture chambersLady HamiltonGiorgione and Titian and JewsStars Ladino and codfishThe painter can put his handThrough the canvas and findWild Cards forlorn and availablePicnics music rabble in the grassBuy a city a car and a pair of shoesEat what you drawYou forgotThe sculptor builds masks for everyoneWho has had their face shot offShe said I am an actressI should have seen through him he was actingKing of Hearts Eight of HeartsTen of Diamonds Two of DiamondsThe Ace of SpadesAce King Black Jack